'Price discrimination is rising to new levels' says Margaret Dibben in Money Matters
On your holiday flight or train journey, did you dare ask the person sitting next to you how much they paid for their ticket? Probably not, because you risk appearing smug if you paid less than they did, or grumpy if you paid more. You are unlikely to have paid exactly the same amount. We might not like it but we accept that airlines, in particular, frequently tinker with the cost of seats right up until the gates close. This is known as dynamic or real-time pricing. A computer automatically changes the prices, depending on how well or badly sales are going. The idea of different prices for the same service or product is commonplace: holidays are cheaper during school term time; children pay less at the cinema. Phone calls used to be more expensive to make in the morning. Anyone who lives in a large house knows that workmen...
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